What happens when you remove all traffic signs?

[Cees Binkhorst]

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Iemand een idee waar die 100 plekken zijn?

Groet / Cees

What happens when you remove all traffic signs? A German town finds out.

In a counterintuitive approach to reducing car accidents and making
streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists, a German town has nixed all
traffic signs and traffic lights in the town center.

http://www.csmonitor.com/
By Isabelle de Pommereau, Correspondent
posted March 31, 2010 at 3:45 pm EDT
Nieder-Erlenbach, Germany

This unpretentious villagelike neighborhood in Frankfurt’s far-northern
tip is known for the idyllic character of its old half-timber homes and
its views of rolling hills.

Now it is a symbol of Germany’s effort to rescue its streets from the
hegemony of cars and give more space to pedestrians and cyclists.

To prod drivers to better share the road, in February Nieder-Erlenbach
got rid of all traffic signs and traffic lights in the town center. It
also erased marked crosswalks, leaving only one sign that says “common
street” and calling for a reduced speed of 30 km/h (18 m.p.h.). The only
other rule: “Always give way to the person on the right.”

Thus Main Street turned into a “naked” square shared equally by bikes,
pedestrians, cars, and trucks. With the change, Nieder-Erlenbach adopted
a radical traffic-management philosophy gaining popularity in Europe.
Pioneered by a Dutch engineer who thought towns were safer with fewer
rules, “shared space” envisions open surfaces on which motorists and
pedestrians can “negotiate” with one another by eye contact, other
signals, and a greater consideration for one another.

Segregating cars and pedestrians was wrong, argued Hans Monderman, the
Dutch engineer who put in place more than 100 shared-space schemes in
the Netherlands. Prodded by European Union funding for shared-space
initiatives, seven European towns have launched shared-space
initiatives, including Ostend in Belgium, Ipswich in England, and the
small northern town of Bohme, Germany.

But in Nieder-Erlenbach, not everybody is enthused. With no indications
as to where to park, drivers tend to park everywhere, stalling traffic.
Ulrike Markus finds the lack of sidewalks unsettling. “Children don’t
know where they feel secure anymore,” Ms. Markus says.

While it’s too early to assess the impact of the changes on traffic
incidents, the no-traffic-sign rule is forcing everybody to behave more
responsibly, most residents agree. Juarita Lascarro says that the
changes have created a new atmosphere on the street. “We all have to be
careful all the time.”

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